Sertifikat je važan.

The certificate is important.

Breakdown of Sertifikat je važan.

• biti: to be
• važan: important
• sertifikat: a certificate

Questions & Answers about Sertifikat je važan.

What does je do in this sentence?

Je is the 3rd person singular present tense of biti = to be.

So in Sertifikat je važan, je means is.

• sertifikat = certificate
• je = is
• važan = important

Serbian often uses short forms like je, sam, si, smo, ste, su for the verb to be in the present tense.

Why is there no word for the or a?

Serbian does not have articles like English.

So sertifikat can mean:

• a certificate
• the certificate

The exact meaning depends on context. Serbian speakers understand definiteness from the situation, previous sentences, emphasis, or word order.

Why does važan end in -an?

Because važan must agree with sertifikat in gender, number, and case.

Here, sertifikat is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative (the subject form)

So the adjective also appears in the masculine singular nominative form: važan.